Internet Archaeol 15. Goodrick and Earl. Notes

Notes

Tavernor's use of reconstruction on research into Alberti's architectural practice (1996) and Kantner's (2000) paper on the intersection between reconstruction and illustration, coupled with Holloway's (2000), prove that consideration of the architectural literature is vital. [back]
Surprisingly, this awareness of the impact of computer science is not significantly paralleled in the literature by a common awareness of architectural theory and other literature dealing with representation and the creation of other imagery via art or photography. [back]
For example, Arnold et al. 1989; Batchelor 1995; Beex 1995; Chapman 1995; Collins et al. 1995, Cornforth and Davidson 1989; Huggerty 1990; Kemp 1995; Kotsakis et al. 1995; Main et al. 1995a; Main et al. 1995b; Morimoto and Motonaka 1993; Ozawa 1993; Reilly 1988; Reilly 1989; Reilly and Shennan 1989; Woodwark 1991. Frischer et al. 2001 and Miller and Richards 1995 provide a wider range of examples of VR applications to archaeology, as do the annual proceedings of the Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology conferences. [back]
The perceived vitality of the discipline when viewed from a media or other external perspective has been well explored in recent years. For example, see Piccini 1996 and Finn 2001. The responsibility and complexity of interaction with the media is explored in detail in Hargreaves and Ferguson 2000. [back]
Definitions of the 'public' or 'popular archaeology' in these terms form an argument beyond the scope of this article. By public routes we refer to the linkbases less tightly associated with academic and professional archaeology. For a discussion of the 'popular' in the past see for example Wyke 1997, 6-7. [back]
Presentation is itself a vital application and should not be downplayed. Innovative techniques present data to a range of audiences and increasingly are being made available to archaeologists as an aid to interactions with the excavated data, sometimes as it is excavated. For example, see Brogni et al. 2000, Kadobayashi et al. 2000, Terras 1999, Vote et al. 2000 and a wide range of examples in Forte and Siliotti 1997 and Barceló et al. 2000. [back]
For example, see discussion in Bateman 2000, 5 and Gillings 2000. Amongst these could also be included Sanders 1999 and the models employed within the Negotiating Avebury project (Goodrick 1999; Earl and Wheatley 2001) and investigations of the relationship between the monument complex and stellar constellations at Thornborough, North Yorkshire, UK (Goodrick and Harding 2000). For an interesting recent example see Lopez y Royo Iyer 2001. This demonstrates animated views derived from VR/modelling software developed for use by choreographers. [back]
The creation of models for one purpose has been found in our experience to exercise a significant control over the appropriate uses and interrogations for and of that model. For example, attempts were made to use even the Avebury and Thornborough models for presentation of a specific past — a use for which they were never designed and do not serve well. [back]
The work of James (1993), Molyneaux (1997) and Moser (1998) has already provided invaluable insights into the underlying visual representative systems at work more broadly. Similarly, film studies, art history and theory offer a broad spectrum of critique and debate — a stimulus surely for enhanced interdisciplinary collaborative work. [back]
See for example McEwan (1994), Pope and Chalmers (2000) and collaborative work — acoustics in archaeology — co-ordinated by Alan Chalmers at Bristol University, UK. [back]
The potential for direct generation of VRML from X3D via XSLT makes such an approach of clear benefit, particularly given the ease with which, for example, a database entry may be used to create XML/X3D formatted objects automatically (using for example ASP.NET, MSXML or standardised database-XML interfaces) — hence speeding and enhancing the potential visualisation of archaeological data primitives. This would also provide for a ready expansion of the automated techniques proposed by Chalmers et al. (1995); Huggett and Chen (2000: 4.1); Nickerson (1999); Roberts and Ryan (1997); Sanders and Gray (1996), amongst others. [back].